THE MAGIC CIRCLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 412, 21 July 1928, Page 27

THE MAGIC CIRCLE

Marion hud been missing Mure nu.rnii*:. and there was a tine to-do at the old farmhouse. •Robbers have taken her away, wailed the mother. well,” ventured Tom. Or in the river. suggested sister Ruth, tearfully. But the old farmer himself voiced the suspicions of everyone when, wringing his hands, he cried: “Nay. nay, it is the good people, the fairies, who have taken away my child. They have bewitched her. and will keep her lor seven years, even as I heard they kept Farmer Marshland’s daughter, a twelve month or more ago.” A sympathetic murmur ran round the little crowd, for this seemed only too true. Most of all there did the farmer's words impress little Jack Cane, tin* playmajte and constant companion of the missing Marion. Jack knew thors was one waj in which the fairies’ power to hold the object of their imp isli designs could be broken, and that was to recover some article worn b> the missing person, without discovery by tho fairies. Then the spell was broken and the lost one returned homo again. ~

The moon shone yellow and full that night when Jack cautiously opened the door of his mother’s cottage and gazed toward the distant wood. A golden light shimmered through the trees and over the tall grass, making the land scape all around look as if bathed in glowing fire, the little, twinkling stars could scarce be seen through the blaze of yellow mystery that filled all the earth and sky.

Surely this was the night on winch the fairies held their revels —it is such nights as these that fairies love. Gently he closed the door behind him and. his heart beating fearfully, made his way along the little pathway that led to the wood. The path narrowed as It entered the wood, and son Jack was swallowed up in the darkness of the overhanging trees. At last, after what seemed hours of aimless wandering, his feet led him to a clearing, on which the moonlight played uninterruptedly This." whispered Jack to himself, ‘‘is certainly a fairy ring. I'll lie down here in the shadow of this bush and watch.” Some unbelieving people might think that Jack fell asleep and dreamed what followed. Bo that as it may, the fact remains that he had lain there only a short time when a strange but beautiful strain of music was borne to ins ears. And something did happen. Round the trunk of :* beech came a throng of shouting, singing elves and fairies. And in the midst of them walked Marion. In her hand she carried the sun-bonnet she always wore, and as the company trooped away into tho darkness of the wood she dropped her bonnet close to where Jack *>atThe sun was shining brightly when ho awoke. To l.is amazement. Marion's sun-bonnet, filled with wild flowers, lav at his feet. He picked it up. “Hurrah!” he shouted. “I’m bound to find her now!” And there, sure enough, lying asleep on the other sid* of the bush, was —Marion. “I lost myself, and lay down and fell asleep,” she said. She knew nothing of the fairies or the magic circle. And Jack knew that, because they could not keep her. the little peonle had taken all memory of the night away from her. ~ —Sent in by Nancy waller.